Field of the Invention
The present disclosure is related to a scanning microscope.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as a device for obtaining a three-dimensional information of a subject, laser scanning microscopes such as a confocal microscope etc. are known. For example, laser scanning microscopes used for industrial purposes can measure the three-dimensional shape of a subject such as a semiconductor, a nano material, etc. in a contactless manner.
As a general rule, laser scanning microscopes can obtain an image of a subject at resolution that is higher than resolution achieved by optical microscopes that use a CCD image sensor, a CMOS image sensor, etc. Meanwhile, a problem that it takes time to obtain an image for scanning a subject has been pointed out.
As a technique that realizes the obtainment of an image in a short period of time by a laser scanning microscope, reciprocal scan as described in for example Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2016-009157 is known. A reciprocal scan in a conventional technique is a technique that is used in raster scan, which is a typical scanning method for a laser scanning microscope. Utilizing a reciprocal scan that obtains an image from both the forward movement and the backward movement in the X directions, in which a scan is conducted at a speed higher than in the Y directions, makes it possible to obtain twice as many images in a prescribed period of time without changing the operation frequency of the scanner.